I spot a rare victory for shareholder activism. I wrote last month about a squabble at one of the prominent “incubators” of the dot-com boom, now fallen on more difficult times, NewMedia Spark. This is now called Sparks Ventures and is chaired by Tom Teichman, a founder investor in lastminute.com, and it has a stake in the latest venture by Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman.

The board was trying to take it private; other investors said that this was being done too quickly and too cheaply, and there were suggestions it should be delayed beyond the holiday season, when various people weren’t around, for greater scrutiny. There were also complaints that two of the three independent directors who recommended the offer were former full-time executives, although they said this had no effect on their independence.

The protests were led by the activist shareholder Vine Street Capital. The offer was pulled on the eve of the EGM. Now another is back on the table, along, mysteriously, with an extra £4.1 million and various other concessions. Moral: sometimes it helps to dig your heels in, however trivial the matter may seem.

We would like to thank our sponsors

John Kay’s much-reported study of banking reform for the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI) was formally launched yesterday.

One of the economist’s conclusions is to favour “narrow banking”, splitting retail banking from riskier investment banking. He is particularly against big integrated banks that use retail banking to cross-subsidise other bits.

Kay is especially scathing about two. Turn to the list of sponsors of the CSFI and read the first two names on the list, Barclays — “enforcement of narrow banking would require that Barclays Capital would sink or swim, as a standalone entity”, Kay concludes — and Citigroup, “the world’s largest financial services business ... unmanageable and effectively unmanaged”. I trust they think their sponsorship money was well spent.

• Bizjet passengers passing through Biggin Hill Airport yesterday were met by a big notice on the Ops board. “Luftwaffe - 60. RAF - 26. RAF fighter tactics having an impact.” A keen historian at the airport had re-created the tally of losses on the Ops board there for September 15, 1940, the climax of the Battle of Britain. There is a big airshow in June next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the battle that has made the airfield a household name.

• Spotted on the fringes of the City yesterday, a film crew and the national treasure Rolf Harris. He was in a cowboy hat and poncho. No idea why.

• There was a conference on Social Finance at Mansion House yesterday, an improbable venue once and a clear indicator of how the agenda has shifted over the past couple of years. John Kingston, of Venturesome, an initiative by the Charities Aid Foundation, said that a new name was needed for funds that were philanthropic but still required a return on investment. “I thought we ought to call them ‘charity development offerings’, or CDOs. Then I realised . . .”

• Quote of the week is from an executive at Alibaba.com, a Chinese e-commerce company, after Yahoo! dumped its $150 million stake without telling anyone at the company — and on the tenth anniversary of its creation. “It’s like telling your wife she looks fat on her birthday.”

Economical with the memories

In the blue corner: Austan Goolsbee

In all the striking of attitudes and rewriting of history surrounding the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, don’t miss the performance of Austan Goolsbee, Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser. He was on Sky News this week praising his master — “He doesn’t panic. He’s even keel, doesn’t get high with the highs or low with the lows.”

Goolsbee suggested that allowing Lehmans to go bust was one of the “missed steps” that almost led to the “complete collapse” of the US economy. “Looking back, I think it’s clear everyone would have wanted to do it differently,” he said. “Obviously, this Administration wasn’t in power at the time, but it’s clear it shattered confidence at that time and precipitated a dramatic nosedive.”

Of course, no one has a good word now for Bush and the new Administration has every reason to suggest, with 20/20 hindsight, that letting Lehmans go under was a mistake. But intimately involved with talks about the bank at the time was Tim Geithner, then president of the Federal Reserve — and nowadays, when I last looked, Obama’s Treasury Secretary.

Times Recommends

• Toyota recalls 437,000 cars including Lexus
• Myners says bonuses are bleeding pension funds
• Japanese company faked safety reports on seats